France to hold peace conference on January 15

France announces that 70 countries will gather on January 15 for peace conference. Israel, PA officials will not attend.

Ben Ariel, 23/12/16 03:36

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French officials announced on Thursday that around 70 countries will gather in France on January 15 for a conference to throw the international community's weight behind a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict.

Neither Israeli nor Palestinian Arab representatives will be present at the meeting, but France intends to invite Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Paris some time afterwards to be briefed on the outcome of the talks, the foreign ministry said, according to AFP.

The move is part of France’s ongoing efforts to resume Israel-PA peace talks which have been at a standstill for more than two years.

France and held a preliminary conference in June, also not attended by Israeli or PA representatives, and was planning to hold a follow-up conference before the end of December with Netanyahu and Abbas involved.

However, Paris announced this week that the follow-up meeting was postponed until January.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, currently visiting the Lebanese capital Beirut, said on Thursday he hoped January’s meeting would "relaunch" the peace process and "re-affirm the necessity of having two states".